Almond Milk
This delicious, creamy almond milk is so satisfying that it was the key to my easy transition to being completely dairy-free. I've wanted to give up dairy for some time now, but the one challenge was my morning latte. This almond milk was so good it almost made me forget to add the coffee. It's given me the key ingredient that's allowed me to create non-dairy beverages that I like even more than cafe latte.
This almond milk is delicious by itself, in smoothies, milkshakes (or mylkshakes) or on raw granola.
Ingredients:
3 cups water
1/2 cup raw almonds, soaked 8-12 hours (3 hours at least), or 1 cup for a thicker milk
1-2 tablespoons organic raw honey, 3-4 soaked, pitted dates, or sweetener of your choice
1/2 vanilla bean, 1/2 tsp of vanilla bean powder, or 1 tsp natural vanilla extract
pinch of Celtic or Himalayan sea salt
Instructions:
Soak the raw almonds for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight. Discard the soak water and rinse. Soaking almonds makes them much easier to digest and more nutritious by activating the enzymes and neutralizing an enzyme inhibitor that makes nuts hard to digest for some people.
Put almonds and water into blender and blend until smooth.
Straining Almond Milk
Strain through a fine mesh strainer, a piece of muslin or muslin bag, or a special nut milk bag (if you can, get a nut milk bag, it will make this process so much easier, and they are easy to clean). If you're using a strainer, stirring with a tablespoon in a spiral motion will help the almond milk to move through faster. If you're using muslin gather up the ends and squeeze to press the milk through.
Save the almond pulp to use in other recipes such as raw cookies or porridge. Rinse out the blender, add the almond milk and the rest of the ingredients and blend thoroughly until frothy and creamy.
You can drink the almond milk as is, or use it in other recipes. It will keep in the fridge for a couple days.
You should try it, I’m sure you’ll love it.
I love making homemade “milks.” Your photos of it look excellent!
Oh thanks Alisa, it’s sometimes hard with the photos, I want to get in close enough to get details but then I’m not sure if anyone else can actually tell what their looking at. So it’s good to hear that. I checked out your blog, it’s great! Your “Mellow Maple-Miso Salad Dressing” sounds delicious. I love sesame oil and maple syrup, I’m sure I’d love it. And your photos are superb. It’s great for me to get exposure to really good food photos – I’m hoping it will improve my own photos.
Hi Donna,
I like your website alot. I am lliking forward to using an avocado with my blueberries in a smoothie!
I made the almond milk tonight (with a 5 gallon paint strainer ;)) and was wondering, what is the nutrional aspects of the “milk” that is produced and also the meal that is left behind?
Also as I am writing this comment, ti seems there is a “getsocial” widget or something to the left of your webpage that severely distorts the entire screen and interferes with my typing. Is there a way to turn that off?
Best of luck to you as spring starts in the Southern Hemisphere…
Cheryl
Hi Danika, thank you and great question about using the left-over pulp. I think it would work in the chocolate almond halva recipe. I’m also experimenting with using it for raw cookies and energy-bar sort of things. I should be posting my first recipe for that soon. It should work well for porridge too.
I too have a lot of almond pulp. Some I’m freezing, because it’s fast and I can add to it incrementally as I create more. I had also saved some up and dried it in the dehydrator. It clumps a bit as it dries, so now I need to run it through the food processor to make it into a fine flour again. So those are the ways that I’m storing it while I accumulate enough to do something with. I will definitely be experimenting with raw cookies and posting that soon. If you sign up to the mailing list (from the form in the sidebar) you’ll get an email with all the latest recipes and articles, it can be an easy way to be notified so you don’t miss them.
YAY! Thank you for posting back to let me know Danika! I’m glad it turned out well.
I love your website too by the way!
Hi, do you wash the nut mylk bag with detergent or just water?
Tks
Hi AA, good question. I usually just use warm water and rub the bag between my hands to get all the pulp off. It helps to do it right away, before the almond pulp dries on the bag. Occasionally I might use a little dish soap if I feel it needs it, but not often.